Max Wicker was head of Duke
University's Baptist Student Union (BSU) in 1953. He was dismissed by the North Carolina
Baptists’ General Board in 1954, along with state BSU director Jimmy Ray and UNC-Chapel Hill
BSU secretary J.C. Herrin, after events surrounding the invitation of a controversial
speaker, Christian theologian Nels Ferre, to the 1953 BSU Convention. Their termination
followed a six-hour hearing before the Board. The student leaders’ dismissal made the pages
of the April 12, 1954 TIME magazine. Joseph Mitchell graduated from Duke Divinity School in
1953, where he met Max Wicker. After his retirement, Mitchell began to research and write
the account of his friend’s dismissal. This collection contains the materials he gathered in
the course of his research, including biographical information about individuals involved in
the controversy; correspondence related to Wicker’s BSU activities, his hearing and
termination; Max Wicker’s public statement about his beliefs; other documents related to the
activities of the BSU at Duke and elsewhere in the state; and news clippings that appeared
in regional and national publications. The collection also contains appendices and drafts of
Mitchell’s account, and his final bound paper, "The 1954 Firing of Max Wicker and Two Other
North Carolina Student Directors, Jimmy Ray and J.C. Herrin" (2006).

The Joseph Mitchell Papers on Max Wicker include materials collected by Duke Divinity
School alumnus Joseph Mitchell related to the 1954 dismissal of Mitchell’s friend Max Wicker
from his position as head of Duke University’s Baptist Student Union (BSU) by the N.C.
Baptists’ General Board. The collection is arranged into two series. Research Files contains
correspondence, newspaper clippings, articles and memorabilia Mitchell collected in the
course of researching an account he wrote about the dismissal of Wicker and two other BSU
student directors, including biographical information about many of the individuals involved
in the dismissal, and other documents related to the activities of the BSU at Duke and
elsewhere in the state. The second series, Writings, contains Mitchell’s bound 2006 paper
about the incident, as well as drafts, appendices and other items related to its
composition.

Materials are largely textual. The collection also includes two black-and-white
photographs, a Baptist Student Union pin, and two CDs containing Word Perfect files of
Mitchell’s paper about the Baptist student directors’ dismissal.

Access to the Collection

Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this
collection.

All or portions of this collection may be housed off-site in Duke University's Library
Service Center. The library may require up to 48 hours to retrieve these materials for
research use.

Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book
& Manuscript Library to use this collection.

Use & Permissions

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright
is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by
United States copyright law.

Research Files includes information about individuals involved in the student leaders’
dismissal; correspondence related to Max Wicker’s BSU activities, his hearing and
termination, including letters of support to Wicker from Baptist and Methodist students;
Max Wicker’s public statement about his beliefs; and other documents related to the
activities of the BSU at Duke and elsewhere in the state. The collection also contains
clippings covering the three student leaders’ 1954 hearing and dismissal that appeared
in regional and national publications. The bulk of the clippings are arranged
chronologically at the end of the series.

Writings contains drafts, appendices and other items related to Frank Joseph Mitchell’s
2006 paper, "The 1954 Firing of Max Wicker and Two Other North Carolina Student
Directors, Jimmy Ray and J.C. Herrin." The bound paper is included at the end of the
series.

Wicker Original (Joe's), undated

Box 1Optical-disc UA30010087-OP-0001

Wicker MS Final, undated

Box 1Optical-disc UA30010087-OP-0002

Wicker Appendices, 1954, 2004-2006

(2 folders)

Box 1

Wicker Appendices: Max Wicker Becomes a Methodist, 2005

Box 1

The 1954 Firing of Max Wicker and Two Other North Carolina Baptist Student
Directors (Book), 2006

Max Wicker was born in Southern Pines, N.C., on August 7, 1924. After his high school
graduation in 1943, he entered a U.S. Navy officer training program at Duke University. He
served in the Navy in 1945-46, and returned to study at Duke in 1947. He received his A.B.
degree from Duke in 1949 and his B.D. degree from Duke Divinity School in 1952. Wicker began
working as Baptist Secretary at Duke in 1952, and was president of the Baptist Student Union
(BSU) at Duke in 1953. He was ordained a Baptist pastor that year in Aberdeen, N.C.

Baptist leaders in North Carolina began investigating the various state chapters of the BSU
after Jimmy Ray, the statewide BSU director, invited Christian theologian Nels Ferre to
speak at their November 1953 BSU Convention. Ferre had been accused of questioning the
doctrine of the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Following this investigation, and after a
six-hour hearing before the N.C. Baptists’ General Board, Wicker, Ray, and J.C. Herrin, the
BSU secretary at UNC-Chapel Hill, were dismissed from their jobs in Spring 1954 over
questions about their theology and choice of BSU programming. The dismissal made the pages
of the April 12, 1954 TIME magazine, which quoted Wicker as saying to the Board, “I do not
affirm the Virgin birth, and I do not deny it.” Though the Board had fired Wicker from his
position as president of the BSU, Duke continued to employ him as a Baptist chaplain. He
officially resigned from Duke in June 1954 and became a Methodist minister. He married Ann
Stewart in 1955. They had five children, Mary Ann, Edythe Louise, Stewart Wesley, Susan
Eleanor, and Will.

Frank Joseph Mitchell (known as Joseph or Joe) was born February 12, 1927, in Fairfield,
Alabama. He spent time in the U.S. Naval Reserve as a Hospital Apprentice in 1945-46, and
graduated from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University) in 1950. Mitchell
graduated from Duke Divinity School in 1953, where he met Max Wicker. Mitchell returned to
Duke to receive his doctorate in religion in the 1960s. He served as a Methodist minister,
and taught at Carleton College in Northfield, MN; Union College in Barbourville, KY; and
Central Methodist College in Fayette, MO; before becoming Professor of Religion and
Philosophy at Troy State University in Troy, Alabama (1970-1989). Mitchell married Norma
Anne Taylor in 1959. They had one daughter, Anne Virginia.

After their retirement, Joseph and Norma Mitchell moved to Durham, N.C., in 2001. They
lived near Max and Ann Wicker. Mitchell took up the research into his friend’s case and
dismissal, and used this research to produce his 2006 paper, "The 1954 Firing of Max Wicker
and Two Other North Carolina Student Directors, Jimmy Ray and J.C. Herrin."